Cal States revise requirements regarding remedial class work

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Update: Oct. 12, 11:58 a.m. A correction was made to the name of counselor Kelsey Iino, which was previous spelled Kelsey Lino. Changes were also made to the lead for clarification that students will “take” placement classes, not “end” them.

As of fall 2018, California State Universities will not require incoming freshmen to take placement tests and remedial courses.

Counselors at El Camino think that this decision could benefit students who struggle with the remedial courses.

“If the Cal State system is going to honor the fact that you don’t have to take math, then (it would) increase our transfer rate,” EC counselor Kelsey Iino said. “(One) of the things that (does) hold students back sometimes is that transferable math course.”

According to Dr. Cynthia Mosqueda, the faculty coordinator of the First Year Experience Program, EC will offer more programs to help students who are in remedial courses speed up the process of getting through them.

“El Camino will pilot the multiple measures for math students, and next year we’re going to be doing it for students who need to take English. Those two initiatives will happen by next summer of 2018,” Mosqueda said.

Mosqueda added that the future programs that EC is planning for its own students will have an effect on the students rather than the Cal State decision.

“The initiatives that El Camino is doing is going to have an impact,” Mosqueda said. “But what the Cal State system is doing, it doesn’t have an impact on our students.”

Michael Tanisaka, a freshmen at El Camino who is currently enrolled in Math 37, a remedial math course, thinks that remedial courses ultimately help students.

“For me it does (help)” Tanisaka said. “(It’s better for students to) take a placement test (to) see where they are.”

Iino feels somewhat conflicted about remedial course work.

“Sometimes students don’t place well, so of course the remedial coursework is way too easy for them,” Iino said. “However, there are those students that maybe didn’t do so well in elementary, middle school and high school so (their skills) in reading, writing and math, they are not strong enough. You may need to take a class to brush up on those skills, which would be remedial coursework.”

According to Mosqueda, these changes are going to affect CSU freshmen and community college students still have to abide by the CSU general education requirements, or the “golden four”.

“It’s pretty much impacting incoming freshmen. It’s not impacting community college students because community college students still have to complete the golden four and two of those classes, one is English, one is math,” Mosqueda said “It’s going to impact students in different ways.”